Movie Review: Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix * ½ / *****

Directed by: Simon Kinberg.

Written by: Simon Kinberg based on characters created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and the story by John Byrne and Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.

Starring: Sophie Turner (Jean Grey / Phoenix), Jessica Chastain (Vuk), James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy / Beast), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven / Mystique), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto), Evan Peters (Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver), Tye Sheridan (Scott Summers / Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler), Alexandra Shipp (Ororo Munroe / Storm), Ato Essandoh (Jones), Summer Fontana (Young Jean Grey), Scott Shepherd (John Grey), Brian d’Arcy James (President), Halston Sage (Dazzler), Lamar Johnson (Match), Hannah Emily Anderson (Elaine Grey).

 

So this is how the X-Men saga comes to an end – with a pathetic whimper instead of a bang. After 19 years, and 12 films (if you include the two Deadpool films) the X-Men series at Fox comes to end with Dark Phoenix – which was supposed to be a re-do of a beloved comic storyline, which was done justice in the 1990s animated series, and horribly butchered in X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006. Because of the events in X-Men: Days of Future Past, they essentially got themselves a do-over – and sadly, this is what they came up with. There are reasons why this film feels so bad – studio mandated re-shoots probably didn’t help, neither did the decision, after the screenplay stage to do this story in one film instead of two, meaning once again, you had to rush through the storyline. What is on the screen doesn’t really speak well of what everyone could have done with more time however. The film is dull and lifeless. The dialogue is awful. Most of the cast is sleepwalking through their roles – and that even includes newcomers to the saga like Jessica Chastain, who I’m not sure has ever been worse in a film. This is uninspired filmmaking by a studio who has given up. I’m not one who has celebrated Disney taking over Fox – if there’s one thing we don’t need its Disney owning even more stuff – nut as far as X-Men goes, well, whatever Disney comes up with for this franchise, it cannot be worse than this.

 

The film takes place in the early 1990s – with Professor X (James McAvoy) overseeing his school for the gifted. His most powerful student is Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) – who we see in a flashback in 1975, as a little girl who doesn’t know her own powers, which causes a tragedy. She’s now a member of the X-Men – alongside Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan)- who she is also dating, Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Storm (Alexandra Shipp). Their latest mission brings them into space where Jean is blasted by what they think are solar flares, but are so not solar flares. It should kill her of course – but it doesn’t it only makes her stronger. But it also makes her increasingly unstable – she didn’t have full control of her powers before, and now she really doesn’t. Things don’t go well – mistakes are made, people die. And to make matters even worse, there is a band of aliens – led by Chastain’s Vuk – who know what power Jean really inherited – and want them.

 

There are some interesting ideas here – interesting ways to look at some of the characters. Professor X has never seemed so megalomaniacal – and yet it makes sense for some to see him that way, given not just what he does in this film, but what’s he’s done in some other films as well. And the time is right for revisiting (and updating) the Dark Phoenix storyline anyway – it was always a feminist storyline, but one that perhaps hasn’t aged as perfectly as it should have.

 

Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t seem like the filmmakers either had the interest or the time to update or rethink the storyline. Instead, they kind of have to dive right in, and get there very quickly. I appreciate that they wanted smaller, more personal stakes this time but it doesn’t really work. Part of that is the performances – I don’t think Sophie Turner is all that good here, and actors like Jennifer Lawrence – who is supposed to have a big emotional role here, don’t seem to want to be here. As for Tye Sheridan as Cyclops – it’s really hard to take him seriously with those sunglasses on. It’s a problem with the live action version of this character – he always just looks silly. And part of the reason it doesn’t work is the writing, which is full of clunky, on-the-nose lines that sound awkward.

 

Finally, we get to the big action climax – which is apparently bigger because of reshoots, and it’s still lame. The special effects in this series has never really been its strong suit – and this is no exception. Except it looks even worse now – a bunch of CGI soup that looks horribly uninteresting. I was also aware of how silly it must of have to shoot all of this as I watched the film – particularly a scene where Jean and Magneto fight over control of a helicopter – here with her mind, him with his magnetic powers – which required both actors to hold their hands out, and grimace as if they were constipated.

 

In short, Dark Phoenix is not the way you would want the X-Men series to go out. It has never been the most consistent of series’ – really only X2 and Logan are truly wonderful films – with First Class, Days of Future Past, The Wolverine and both Deadpool movies being varying degrees of good – and Origins: Wolverine, The Last Stand, Apocalypse and now Dark Phoenix being not good at all. Is this the worse the series has ever been? It’s close with Apocalypse for the worst in the franchise – but at least this film is only 105 minutes, not 142 minutes, so it has that going for it. And really not much else. A sad end to this franchise. But if you’re a X-Men fan don’t worry too much – I’m sure Disney is working on the reboot as we speak. Just, maybe stay away from The Dark Phoenix storyline guys.